765.84/393: Telegram (part air)
The Consul at Geneva ( Gilbert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 22—3:20 p.m.]
221. 1. The Secretary General has circulated a letter22 received from the Abyssinian Minister at Paris dated June 19th requesting that the members of the Council and of the League be informed in substance as follows:
The Italian Government continues to despatch troops to Africa and to threaten Abyssinia in inflammatory speeches employing alleged frontier incidents as pretexts to justify “active preparations for an impending aggression and to make such aggression inevitable”. The Abyssinian Government therefore submits to the League Council the following proposal.
- (a)
- The Council to designate immediately neutral observers to go to Abyssinian territory in order to investigate the situation existing in the frontier districts, to make an inquiry into all alleged or real incidents and to report to the Council direct.
- (b)
- The Abyssinian Government undertakes to afford all assistance to the observers and to pay the costs of the inquiry in such sum as the Council may fix.
2. The note makes no reference to the current arbitration proceedings and its technical relationship thereto is not clear. The note is also ambiguous as to whether or not Abyssinia is requesting an immediate convocation of the Council.
- League of Nations, Official Journal, August 1935, p. 972.↩